There’s a pretty shocking video doing the rounds on social media at the moment showing a narrowboat ramming a lock gate – and, not surprisingly, the Canal & River Trust like many of us is appalled.
There’s a pretty shocking video doing the rounds on social media at the moment showing a narrowboat ramming a lock gate – and, not surprisingly, the Canal & River Trust like many of us is appalled.
While acknowledging that only a small minority of boaters act this recklessly, the Trust is asking anyone who sees such behaviour to report it immediately, as Vince Moran, operations director explained:
“We spend millions of pounds maintaining the waterways and inconsiderate, dangerous, behaviour like this is unacceptable. The lock gate in the video was only replaced two years ago and usually we expect them to last for 25 years but they won’t if they’re treated with such disregard.
“Thankfully, in this instance, there was only minor damage, the lock is still in good working order – but we’ll still have to divert resources from other maintenance tasks to spend around four hours repairing the gate fenders. It could have been far, far worse with, in the worst case scenario, personal injury and a complete canal closure.
“Any boater who sees such irresponsible behaviour should report it immediately to customer services and we’ll take appropriate action. In this case we’re urgently seeking a meeting with the individual responsible to hear how he can possibly justify his behaviour. We will then decide whether to take any further action.”
